Venice Days jury goes live

The jury for Venice Day’s new cash prize will make its final deliberations in a public, live-streamed event at its 11th edition unfolding August 27 to September 6.

‘The final discussion for the verdict will be a public discussion in English, which will also be streamed. It’s the first time a major film festival hosts a jury discussing in public rather than in secret in a locked room,” Giorgio Gosetti, artistic director of the parallel Venice selection, told Screen.

The point of the initiative, said Gosetti, is to foster debate and discussion about the films in the selection.

“This has been lost in modern festivals. In the past, there used to be huge discussions after a screening now everyone runs off to file or on to another screening,” he noted.

Under the initiative, the jury will feature 28 cinemagoers aged between 18 to 30-years-old put forward by members of the Europa Cinema network for independent European theatres.

The parallel Venice section new €20,000 ($27,000) was announced in Berlin.

“The public award will be the same as ever but for the main prize we decided not to have a traditional jury so with the agreement of the European parliament and Europa Cinema we are in the process of selecting 28 people from the 28 members of the European Union,” explained Gosetti. “They will be presided over by an internationally known, established director.”

“The idea is that it will be like a training campus of ten days, screening two films per day, in order to have a serious discussion on what is cinema, how can you judge and understand it and how can you decide, according to you, that one film matters more that another,” he added.

In other Days news, the selection will pay tribute to Quebecois cinema this year, with the inclusion of at least one film from the French-speaking Canadian territory as well as related events.

“We’ve worked a lot with Quebecois cinema at Venice Days. Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. and Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies both screened in Venice Days,” said Gosetti.

Under the tribute, at least one of the films in the Venice Days selection will hail from Quebec, there will be a short retrospective in Rome, and there may be other related events in Venice.

In other news, the sidebar is also sponsoring screenings of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in Rome in June this year.

“The entire programme of Directors’ Fortnight will be promoted and sponsored by us under a twinning agreement,” said Gosetti.

“We’re also continuing are cultural partnership with Tribeca through which we present one film from Venice Days in New York and Tribeca brings one film from its selection to Venice,” he added.